Possession
by Alpha Centauri
Summary: [HaoxRen][Warnings: Character Deaths] While watching the stars at night Ren finds that he might have more in common with his enemy than he chooses to believe [Complete]
1. Chapter 1: Stars

A.C.: I had this lying around for quite sometime so... why not? If I get good reviews I might turn this into a not quite a one shot. Oh and before I forget I don't own Shaman King, if I did, as with many anime I'd pair people up. Namely Hao and Ren ;)

* * *

_I like you Ren..._

_Hell, what did that mean?_

_Was Hao just playing with his mind again?_

_But the look in his eyes, it told him of something else..._

A short, Chinese boy stood in the middle of a cemetery watching the stars like he usually did

The night was unusually cold

The freezing winds biting into his pale skin like knives

Glassy eyed he eyed the moon warily pouring over all the events that had transpired so far. He absentmindedly rubbed his hands imagining thousands of lives worth of blood dripping off of them.

_He had promised_

_He had promised Yoh not to kill again_

_But why?_

His golden eyes closed gently his head lowering towards his chest deep in thought. His breathing slowed as spirits of the dead appeared taunting him, cursing him for the deeds that he had done. Tired he opened his golden eyes glaring at them like only he could,

"Fuck off, I'm not in the mood..."

"Oh but I am..." surprised Ren turned around only to face a pair of honey eyes.

_Yoh?!_

No, not Yoh...

The chances were unlikely that he would come out here, even without his fianc

So then that would mean 

"Hao,"Ren spat bitterly, "what do you want?" the other shaman wasn't fazed continuing to smile his own special I-know-something-that-you-don't smile

"What makes you think I want anything, Ren?" he grinned cupping Ren's face forcefully in his hands staring into the steadily narrowing golden eyes. Ren glared at him as if there wasn't a thing more obvious

"Maybe it's the fact that you're here." He growled trying to pull away and failing miserably

"Maybe" smirked Hao gently letting go of Ren "What do I want Tao?" Ren was unnerved by this question; it could easily be a trap... but then again...

"I don't know" Ren replied steadily continuing his observation of the stars though his thoughts were elsewhere. "What do you want Hao?"

"Isn't it obvious Ren?" whispered Hao putting one arm around Ren's slim waist and drawing him closer so that Ren could literally feel Hao's silky breathing upon his neck. Hao clicked his teeth softly nibbling at Ren's neck "I want you..." He stood shocked by this revelation

Hao wanted him? 

Ren narrowed his eyes

Of course, the Shaman Fight 

"Haven't you realized by now that I will defeat you and become the Shaman King?" Ren growled trying to tear himself from the warm embrace.

_Wait_

_Warm?_

"But you could be my queen..." purred Hao tightening his grip "and the Shaman Fight is not all I want you for..."

"!?" Ren was about to ask what else when a voice called faintly lifting the silence all around them. It was Yoh, how strange...

"Tomorrow, same time." He gave Ren one final squeeze burying his face in the other shaman's back. "I'll make you mine yet Tao Ren," whispered Hao and giving Ren a peck on the cheek he disappeared. That was how Yoh found Ren, speechless and on his knees.

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A.C.: what'd you think?


	2. Chapter 2: Morning

ChibiLaryla II- kk  
  
lost complex- ::grins:: should I try to make it your favorite then?  
  
Marineneko- wrote, completed, posted... should I be working on the third chappy now?  
  
Charred- glad you think so =)  
  
Shrimpy-lil-Shaman- I will... as soon as I get rid of the hidden pop up thing that prevents me from reviewing 0o;;  
  
Shamandancer- I hope so too .;; hopefully this idea won't die out because I did  
  
Hoshi No Hikari Ai- Thanks   
  
Flme thrower 666- Why? And I really don't see why it would want to . but that's just me ::yawns::  
  
Cool- thank you =)  
  
HikariTao- here's the new chapter then =P  
  
A.C.: I've been slacking... why? Because I'm depressed and have an ADD to boot .;; but you'll slowly see the rest of my fics being updated very slowly over the busy month of July. Just cross your fingers and hope that I don't drop dead.

* * *

The chocolate-eyed boy bounded up the hill with a cheer and vigor that had to be illegal somewhere. Strangely Ren did not mind as we tried to form a greeting on his tongue and failing.  
  
"Yoh..." Lingering scent of Hao was still there but quickly fading away against Yoh's, saffron eyes drooped still staring at where Hao was then closed oblivious to the alarmed yells ringing all around him._"He's a complete asshole"  
  
::Pale hands reached for a fading figure within a storm::  
  
"Loser"  
  
::Eyes watched carefully as a loved one, his loved one fought::  
  
"Bastard"  
  
::Same eyes watched as he died in his beloved's arms::  
  
If there were words he would respond, say something, but there were none, so he remained quiet.  
  
"Jerk"  
  
::He stabbed a dagger through the chest, dexterously carving out the still beating heart::  
  
"Son of a bitch"  
  
If only there were words... he would forget them, and make the rest forget as well  
  
If only there were words... he would wash them away  
  
"Scum"  
  
::He hid within a graveyard while spring rain doused everything around him::  
  
If only...  
  
"Murderer"  
  
::Eyes closed in a small plead for forgiveness::  
  
If only there were words..._   
  
Dawn, as the shades of crimson appeared beyond the horizon...  
  
Morning, as the sun rose with small effort over the course of few minutes...  
  
Golden eyes slowly awoke to the sunbeams that seeped through the blinds like a pool of water.  
  
Shit, morning?! He had overslept?!  
  
He jumped up trying to determine if anyone would come up looking for him.  
  
No one, not a single soul whispering in his ear  
  
It was still six am in the morning, an ungodly hour to be up at but since when was Tao Ren the one to obey the rules of human physics?  
  
"Ren." Ren whirled around on a defense position only to face Anna Kyouyama in the doorway. He relaxed his stance, but only slightly.  
  
"Kyouyama" he gave a curt nod.  
  
"Tao"  
  
They seized each other up for a while until Anna said the words that would change his life forever. "Stay away from him." No one had to be told who he was.  
  
"And if I don't?" impassive blue ones met emotionless gold ones.  
  
"Then I will make sure that you do Tao." She crossed her arms, "he is my fiancé, you have no right to try and take him away from me."  
  
"Well maybe no one would if you acted nice towards him for once." Ren retorted attempting to get out of the room and away from... her... but she blocked his way glaring down at him,  
  
"Get out of _my_ house Tao"  
  
"I wasn't aware this house belonged to you."  
  
"Why don't you go back and play with your own kind? This is not a suggestion, it's an order." Stifling the urge to mutter 'I don't take orders from you' he grunted in response heading towards the window and jumping out when the girl refused to budge from her place in the doorframe. "Damn you Tao..." a twisted smile took place on her lips, "but I'll take care of you soon enough... you'll wish that you never heard the name Anna Kyouyama..."  
  
In the window, hiding in a tree Asukara Hao gave a silent applause at the retreating figure of Anna Kyouyama. The corner of his lips twitched in to an even bigger grin then the one he had on before.  
  
"Very good dear Anna, it looks like you have your uses as well..." he leaned forward hoping to catch a sight of Ren working on. He was disappointed however when instead of the beautiful Chinese the short tag along that Yoh always had with him stumbled out wrapped in a grocery list with Yoh soon following.  
  
If anything, Hao's grin grew wider.  
  
"Brace yourself dear twin... I'm not as dead as you think I am..."

* * *

A.C.: so... good enough update for ya? 


	3. Chapter 3: Rain

A.C.: I don't think it's healthy to get aboard a plane when experiencing a bout of cold... (And it so happens I got one in a 40c weather...) on a side note, I'm bastardizing Anna aren't I?

titangirl161- Poor Ren indeed =P but you know what they say about people hurting the ones they loveChibiLaryla II- thanksHikariTao- here's the new chapter =DKurai- thank you =)WaterThrower777- lol, thanks

* * *

_'Your kind...'_Anna's voice haunted him all through the day and well into the evening when one last ditch effort at sleep (and refusing to go where he and Hao met last night... because if he wanted to Hao could go and get him in his room anyways) failed and he went down stairs for milk. He grabbed a blue colored cup off the table,_'Tamao forgetting to put things back? Anna not noticing? Odd...'_It begin to rain as he opened the fridge for some ice, he glared down at the suspiciously innocent blue cup with the reflection of him glaring right back.

He scowled drinking the cool liquid...  
  
__

_Play with your own kind...'_  
  
__

_Play with your kind...'_ in shock he spat the water out dropping the cup on the floor where it shattered with fragments of it impaling his feet.

Blood dripped on to the wooden floor  
  
__

_Your kind...'_

"Anna you self centered bitch..." he swore before giving the ceiling a meaningful look, then he leapt out into the rain unaware of the presence occupying the living room.

"Good thing you have a brain..." Anna sat on the couch with her eyes unblinkingly glued to the immobile screen. She reached out and drained a cup of juice before flickering her eyes away towards the kitchen where the Chinese shaman had occupied just moments before. "Have fun Tao... your secrets won't be so safe you shall see soon enough."

Rain obscured his vision his wet locks slapping down on the sides of his face. He was soaked to the bone as anyone could plainly see, but he couldn't... he wouldn't ignore the threatening presence of the hostile aura at the edge of the town.

And Yoh would never notice anything less than a planet exploding before waking up.

Normally this wouldn't have bothered him, but normally... the usual shamans didn't have that much power. He shuddered... that bitch... he whispered

"Bason... stand..." he shuddered, "...stand by me now..." immediately as if he had been only waiting for a call Bason appeared though looking slightly different, he had a different air about him that commended respect.

The golden eyes seem to glow through the silver rain...

Green eyes joined it in a meticulous rhythm.

Ren jumped, soaring clear above the lethal stroke that had been dealt to the concrete which he had been on less than a second ago.

"Tut, tut." Tsked Ren smirking, "too slow." The acidic, green eyes glared back at him.

"Hiyaaa!!" with a fierce battle cry the one on the right launched arrows at him, and from the looks of it, the arrows were bonded with shikigami. The thought had cost him dearly; he grimaced as an arrow pierced through his left shoulder and out the other side.

'This is why... Anna had picked them... they were not the usual shaman...' his spear skewered the one who had dared to injure him._'They are...'_ he tore out the arrow snapping it in two.

He quickly turned around blocking the blow from the other one with the body of the one that he had just killed.

Screams rang in his ears and he jumped up on to the top of a building for a breather, but the one was still following... green eyes battled with gold as they danced one that only they could understand._'...Assassins...'_

"BASON OVERSOUL!" the blade impacted on his left arm but quickly repelled. Ren panted, he shouldn't have had this much trouble getting rid of them. But why...?

Through his quickly fading eyesight he saw that the assassin was preparing to throw daggers at him.

__

__

_Yoh...!'_

Dimly he was aware that more had joined them, familiar presences, the ones that he had once fought with. Various yells reached his ears as daggers dug into his skin throwing him through the window.

The glass shattered melting into the rain where he was sure it had rained down on the others.

They hadn't recognized that it was he, at least... not yet.

He grunted in pain as the assassin jumped after him intent on burying the last dagger it held into his throat.

He hissed as he saw his would-be-murderer over him...

In that split second he had called on Bason and blew him clear out the brick walls, if the person had enough common sense he would have called upon his own spirit to cushion his impact.

Not that it mattered...

No...

One moment he was shaking free of the slivers of glass that delved deeper into his skin...

The next he had skewered the assassin like the other moments before.

He felt an aura erupt around him, and he let the corpse drop down to the wet concrete below.

In the deluge of rain, Yoh attacked.

Ren's mouth fell open as he slipped on the building walls just managing to get out of the way.

"GODDAMMIT YOU BASTARD! ARE YOU BLIND?!" his angry cry went unnoticed as Yoh attacked again, this time with Amidamaru in tow.

'Clang' he blocked the next blow with some difficulties, the only question was how long would he be able to last. Even as he fought he felt his body tiring, but he had pushed himself to the limits before, he knew he had far more to go._'Either they did something to me...'_ Ren let out a sharp gasp as he felt himself pushed onto the uneven ledges. '_Yoh...'_"Who are you?" Ren grunted trying to push the other shaman off himself.

"Why'd you kill them?" Yoh had Ren in a strangling hold; his sword left forgotten a few feet away, Amidamaru looked worried. The said spirit was about to say something then stopped eyeing the other angry spirit wearily.

_'Is he... being controlled?'_A small glimmer of non-existent light...With a cry he threw Yoh off taking a defensive stance.Like wise Yoh did the same, and they circled each other for a while looking for a weakness.Ren shook slightly.Yoh stiffened.Soon they had leapt over human boundaries willing to take it to the sky...With an expert stoke Ren had his spear crashing over Yoh's head only to have the other shaman block it.Silence.They descended near the others with Yoh's sword jutting out of Ren's stomach only... they still had not realized that it was him."Bocchama!" Amidamaru looked at the spirit a slight stunned look plastered on his face."...!?!?!!"

"Yoh, you bastard..." almost as if Ren was about to touch his face he held his hand up to the chocolate eyes, ripping off the beaded necklace on Yoh's neck at the last minute.

The round beads scattered on the floor... and so did blood...

A hazy look of recognition dawned upon Yoh's chocolate eyes. And with a strangled yelp Yoh let go of his sword watching Ren take it out without batting an eye.

"Ren... oh gods..." Ren looked at him, his eyes drooped slightly.Faintly he felt the others gather around them, some in shock, most in horror, and one in anger.Blood burst through his already weakened veins sending streams of the precious life liquid down the Chinese shaman's nose and mouth. With a free hand Ren clutched at his stomach wound feeling it bleed through his already blood stained fingers.

And then he fell, right into Yoh's arms.

Scarlet stained their clothing, mixing with rain and draining into the sewers. Ren his heart still beating, his veins still pulsing with blood... it would ultimately be his heart that would bring his untimely demise.

"REN!"

"BOCCHAMA!"

_'Kisama...'_

A sudden chill rang up everyone's arms save Ren who remained unconscious. The wind suddenly picked up spraying water everywhere reducing visibility. By the time they were able to see again... Ren was gone... and so was Bason"REN!!!!"

::ende...::


	4. Chapter 4: Mine

A.C.: tis... been... a... long... time... Bad A.C. bad

* * *

Yoh was in shock. He was in his room rocking back and forth not letting anyone except Anna near. His friends were all worried, and especially for Ren since no one had seen the hide or hair of the Chinese shaman since that night. Jun had visited once throwing Yoh, who was sleeping fitfully, a revolted look before leaving to find her baby brother.

And now it was night and Yoh was still awake clutching his head reliving the moment when he stabbed Ren over and over again. The door slid open to reveal Anna solemnly looking at Yoh. She walked over to him sitting down and taking hold of his shoulders.

"Calm down Yoh, it wasn't your fault." Yoh did not respond for a few seconds then he burst in to tears burying his face into the nape of her neck as he cried and frantically described the night he stabbed Ren.

"But... But you weren't there Anna! You didn't hold him in your arms as his b... blood got all over the place, you weren't the one who stabbed him, you weren't the one who made him disappear!!"

'Slap!' Yoh's hand flew to his reddening cheek as Anna's hands carefully wove a beaded necklace around his neck.

"It wasn't your fault Yoh, it wasn't your fault that Ren disappeared... no it's not..." Yoh's eyes turned blank as his face hid in the shadows with Anna's hands stroking his cheeks softly, almost lovingly. "It's Tao Ren's fault that you are like this right now... remember it."

_"Yes Anna"_

Moonlight glinted off the jaded necklace around Yoh's neck.

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Ren tossed and turned feverishly, finally setting his head just off from above the plushy material beneath him. Then he proceeded to empty his stomach of a half digested meal he had long ago. He stopped to wipe his mouth on his wristbands and sit up grimacing in disgust at the puke pooling below.

He flexed his hands scowling at the weakness he found in them. Most of his body had been bandaged though it showed some wetness, as if it had been done half way in the rain.

Or it could have been the damp air swirling around him, a cool contrast the hellish heat that flushed against his body.

The door clicked open,

And Hao entered holding a tray of what appeared to be soup and a glass of water.

"You're awake" said the shaman smugly setting down the tray before Ren and with surprising gentleness, placing his gloved hand on the Chinese shaman's brow.

Hao frowned briefly but it was gone in a second leaving Ren to wonder if it had been there in the first place.

"Where... Where am I?" his words came out forced, slow, his tongue feeling sluggish in the dry corners of his mouth. His hand grabbed the glass of water from the tray, and few seconds later the glass was empty save for few drops of moisture that clung on to the cup.

Hao watched in amusement taking his hand off from Ren's forehead.

"No where in particular..." the fingers trailed down Ren's face caressing the jaw line before dipping under the collarbone and finally in the chest.

Ren gasped sharply as pain imploded in his chest, stars crossed his vision and his torso felt like his 'father' was ironing it.

"It hurts doesn't it?" blood showed against the thick bandaging as Hao pressed harder only stopping when series of whimpers rolled off Ren's tongue his face suddenly going pale drenched with a thick coating of sweat. "It should, it did come out through the back." The chocolate haired shaman watched in a morbid fascination as Ren slumped over revealing a half way hidden insignia of the Tao clan engraved on his back.

Ren looked resentfully up at Hao from under the purple locks, his hand itching for the familiar feel of his spear.

"Bastard." Sickening sensation spread across his chest making his fingers slightly tingle. He shuddered and slowly sat up clutching his chest incase Hao tried 'poking' it again. He looked at the soup sordidly, as if daring Hao to feed him the steaming bowl of concoction laced with who-knows-what.

Ren had forgotten something; Hao could read minds to some extent. He wasn't Asukara Hao for nothing. Hao's hands had snaked up his own effectively restraining them as he flipped the Chinese on to his back.

"Was that a challenge?" the keeper of the spirit of fire purred, using one free hand to grope Ren a little, the slender fingers straying a bit too far. Ren blushed as Hao drank some of the soup, obviously thinking of something or another, then locked their lips together forcing Ren into a mushroom and cream flavored kiss.

Ren flailed his spear somehow appearing before his hands perfectly aimed at Hao's neck. The other just laughed and jumped away, the soup bowl fell to the floor crashing as it did so.

Ren froze, his hands and spear stuck in midair as he was struck by a sense of dejavu. Golden eyes widened then launched themselves through a door. With a sickening thud the door fell but not before something heavy had landed on top of him. It was still raining, the cold liquid spraying his face, but his eyes remained wide, unfocused as if seeing something entirely different.

Hao had cursed something out loud, but it was incomprehensible, lost through the thick of the rain and his... mind? Perhaps... His fingers lay palm up on the ground, he could still see himself fighting them and... _him_.

As if he had read his mind, which he probably did, Hao stroked the pale cheeks gently before gracing them with a kiss, nibbling slowly down the side of his face and his lower jaws before biting the Chinese shaman's lower lips.

Ren still did not respond, and they stayed in that position thoughtfully eyeing each other, mostly on Hao's part, till the rain stopped to a slight drizzle, then nothing at all.

Ren's lips, blue with the cold, moved slightly though the first words were lost to the air the next ones were clearly heard as Ren said,

"Who am I Hao...?" Hao just flashed that mysterious smile of his before tucking a bit of loose black hair behind Ren's ears. He leaned in closer until Ren could literally feel the warm trickle of air on his neck.

"You are..." Hao kissed him briefly before getting off the smaller shaman to lift him up in his arms. "Mine..."

"Yours...?" Golden eyes met hazel as confusion cleared only to reveal another.

"Mine... purely mine..."


	5. Chapter 5: Thoughts

A.C.: Today's full of updates, happy?

.-.

.-.

Pain...

Then nothing...

Horohoro slurped his milkshake loudly as they all sat around a small restaurant trying to find a way to get Ren back. Well, almost all of them. Anna and Yoh had refused to show up, Tamao informed them nervously.

"In his words... 'A traitor not worth getting back' ..." the effect was instantaneous, Horohoro spat out his milkshake on to the face of Manta who in turn dropped the hamburger he had nibbling on moments before. Ryu knocked a cup of water off from the table and Faust looked rather calm about all this.

After much confusion and everyone calmed down very much intact and clean Horohoro said quietly,

"We should get him back." Manta looked hysteric wringing the paper towel in his hands.

"But we don't even no where he is, we don't even know what happened that night, how will we do it without Yoh!"

"He has a point... but we do know where he is..." said Faust slowly fingering the fries before pushing them away. Everyone looked up. "Well we don't..." Faust looked around, the bags under his eyes distinctive against the pallor of his skin. "But I know who does..."

.-.

.-.

The mission was simple, Tamao would distract the household, Manta goes as an additional distraction while Horohoro and Ryu would try to sneak into Ren's room. Faust would be on a stand by outside and out of view. Pirika was out shopping and wouldn't be back till later.

The blue haired shaman crept along the halls, his socked toes hovering above the wooden flooring as Ryu pasted himself on the wall when a crashing sound from the kitchen came.

They opened the door to Ren's room feeling a vague sense of dejavu and the fact that the Chinese shaman might come bursting out of the closet trying to shred them to bits. But Ren was gone now, and they were here to find out where and why.

Faust had suggested they look for Bason, if anyone knew where Ren was, it would be the ghost of the Chinese general. Needless to say everyone agreed.

Another crash, Manta, or perhaps Tamao was dropping one too many dishes on the floor. They could almost hear the curt voice of Anna drifting towards them.

The room was inhumanely clean or rather empty, not even a speck of dust in the purple haired shaman's absence. Quickly, Horohoro and Ryu shifted around Ren's belongings looking for clues or rather Bason's memorial tablet.

They worked in silence, every now and then muttering random words.

The whole day went by and they met again all at the same restaurant, in the same seats, ordering the same things.

Ryu drank a cup of water,

"I'm telling you there's something weird going on." Ryu pulled out a mirror examining himself in it. "If Ren wanted to disappear, or he got captured, why would he come back? Furthermore..." Ryu slumped on the mattress covered only by the thinnest of sheets. "who would capture him? Who needs him that badly?" a crash, Horohoro had dropped a clock.

Ryu looked up and saw the ghastly whiteness spreading across the ice shaman's face.

"H... Hao..."

.-.

.-.

"So it's true then," they had gathered in a cemetery, they were less likely to be disturbed there. "Asakura Hao is indeed alive." Horohoro looked hysterical at the confirmation.

"If you knew why didn't you tell us!" Ryu held him back, Tamao was still at Anna's and Manta was trying to see Yoh.

Pirika wandered off a bit noticing the depressing aura surrounding her big brother and the others.

Faust lowered his eyes.

"I had always suspected, we all did in some ways... Asakura Hao is too powerful to be defeated like that." Horohoro stopped but emotions threatened to break out behind his eyes. "Hao has always wanted Ren believe it or not."

"But why?" Horohoro's voice was no more than a whisper, they all had to strain their ears to catch it. Pirika had come back carrying something.

"Ever thought..." started Faust looking up at the sky, "that Hao is only trying to gain back everything that he's lost in the past?"


	6. Chapter 6: Memories

The earth was slippery from rain; the air had the strange coldness about it chilling him to the very core. And then there was the flames... the orange light that flickered along with his vision. A piercing pain at his side... then a floating sensation of him falling towards his doom.

'_Am I dying?'_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Flames licked at the hem of his robes, as he called frantically for her. The house was in ruins, though the fire still blazed wildly clawing at the very sky itself. Spirit of Water loomed over the crackling wood and corpses of servants, small droplets of water fell from the sky obscuring the moon and muffling the jagged flames.

A small sound amongst the crumbling building, a sound he longed to hear, just not in so much pain.

She was there, with the heavy door crushing her tiny form to jelly. She had curled protectively around her stomach in a fetal position. Soot and blackening burns most of her body, a stark contrast against her usually delicate skin.

"_I'm sorry..."_ her voice wracked with pain, he finally let loose the torrents of tears that had plagued him since he had caught side of the firestorm. She touched his face, the heat of the flames still left on them, and she was gone as if she had never been there...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

'Why is it so dark?'

'Why?'

'Why?'

'Why?'

Anna murmured soothingly, unlike herself as she bathed him.

'An...na...' the sponge was bubbling with tickling foam as it was wiped across his back in a methodical way, never hesitating but never punishing as it washed away the last of the dirt upon his skin. He realized that he was naked,

'Anna!' the odd necklace was still around his neck, he couldn't feel the heat rush to his cheeks like it usually did when he was embarrassed.

"Don't worry," she said in a monotone without looking at him. Almost as if she knew he was listening, however remotely that was. "You will forget, you will forget about Tao Ren..." he would have gasped if he could, except now his body was no longer his to control. "Then you will answer only to me..."

'ANNA!'

It was selfish of her, she thought as she enlisted the help of a very shocked looking Tamao to haul Yoh off to bed. Tamao had blushed heavily, stammering politely before scurrying off.

She narrowed her eyes; it wasn't as if she didn't know what others were planning. It simply did not matter, she knew more, or so she thought, than what others were currently informed of. She knew that she loved Asakura Yoh in a sick, twisted way... no perhaps not love, but obsession can do many things to a person. Especially if one had chased it over five hundred years.

She had cleaned out Ren's room last night, watching in satisfaction as Yoh blankly burned away the belongings of the Chinese Shaman and neatly cleaned the room in a way he had never done in his life.

"Yoh..." she whispered softly looking down at her sleeping fiancé, "I lost to her but if I can't have him I will have you instead." She laughed softly as she lay across Yoh's stomach, "I am a bitch aren't I?" she faced him just inches away from direct contact. She buried her face in the crook of his neck breathing into his soapy scent. "But you're mine now..."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Asakura Hao gazed deeply into the flames and sighed, the memories of two girls, both inverses of each other, dancing across his mind. One an active blonde with sparkling hazel eyes that were eager to soak up the knowledge presented before her. The second, a demure girl-woman, the only one to have triumphed over him, even if it was because he was too busy trying to stem the flow of blood from both of his nostrils.

A flash of flames and a figure stumbles back, hissing in pain. Gold eyes narrow angrily as he resists the urge to suck on the burnt appendages.

A sigh,

"My dear Ren, haven't you learned that I am never off my guard?" with a gentle hand he caught the wrist of the retreating shaman in a firm grip. "Now look what you've done, you've hurt yourself."

"Correction Hao, you hurt me." Hao smiled, scanning Ren's face carefully to see that the fire has not caused damage to the Chinese shaman's beautiful visage.

"Aah but I wouldn't have if you weren't so intent on ramming that spear of yours into my head..." pulling Ren closer Hao nibbled on his ear to which Ren reacted by looking away, burning in shame at his weakness.

"Why can't you let me go? Why won't you?" the nibbling stopped, before it turned into a trail of kisses that burned through his neckline onto his collarbone.

"Ren..." breathed Hao through half lidded eyes, "do you find me that repulsive?"


	7. Chapter 7: Sight

A.C.: Heh... I hate school... thank you reviewers...

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"Father, Ren has been missing for almost a month, you'd think he would have tried to contact us by now." It was foolish, but at that point Tao Jun had reached a dead end with no clues to lead her to her brother. "I request the use of black flames to find him."

Pailong came up behind her staring up at the giant oversoul of her father. Bason appeared like wise but changed, cast in shadows completely mute. Tao En seemed to reconsider...

"Denied." He boomed slapping the giant armchair with the likewise hand.

"But why...!" Tao En narrowed his eyes, immediately Pailong restrained her in his cold arms. "Pailong...? What are you doing?" Jun looked to her father and found that the giant oversoul had dispersed into mist and few odd spirits floating over his head.

"Ren will not receive any help from us."

Jun began to struggle but she was no match for the muscular form of a former Chinese martial artist.

"He's your son you bastard! The least you could do is let me help him!" Bason looked up, En looked very much amused. "If you won't do it for him at least do it for the fact that he's an heir! If you have ever cared that we are your offspring, save him!"

"Jun..." said Pailong warningly with a touch of soothing in it.

"No one can save him," declared Tao En as he cast the black flames around him reflecting the situation at hand. "Especially not you Jun." In shock Jun slipped down to her knees just as her mother and grandfather appeared before them.

"Master Ren is doomed to die..." a strange voice, it was Bason. She now saw that his face was wet with tears. "It has been this way since he was first born 1000 years ago..."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Something had inexplicable changed in between them.

_He could learn to love..._

A hand came up to his face, warm liquid not of blood but hot water.

_He could..._

He pressed his palm to his face.

_He could love..._

An eruption of bubbles and a red face haloed by a sea of bay floated up to the surface, a dizzy faced how coughed up foam.

Maybe not 

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A week 

Horohoro blinked wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him... again. He blinked again clearing his eyes of nonexistent film of dust, or maybe bugs that must have gathered on his eyes for keeping them open for sometime without blinking once. He blinked the third time and decided that his eyes could **_not_** have been playing obscene tricks on him.

Forgetting the rice, eggs, fish, milk,(god knows why, Ren wasn't there to drink them out of house and home) and sugar he ran after the slim figure clothed in a simple yet oriental red shirt and baggy jeans carrying six bottles of milk in a weather stained yellow shopping basket.

"Ren!" the other flinched at the name but otherwise did not turn around, walking even faster at the name. 'Ren's... running away...?' the blue haired shaman grabbed the other's shoulders wrenching them around to come face to face with...!

"Horohoro... let go of me..."

"Ren..."

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"You've changed." Said Horohoro softly stirring the ice in his orange juice. Ren grunted in response opening a bottle of milk. "So... where'd you go?" the blue haired shaman would have loved to start with the hysterics, perhaps shake the gold eyed shaman until he was at a knifepoint. But they were treading upon a delicate point, it was clear to him now that even when in a local range Ren had not bothered to drop a note that he was alright. Horohoro shook, "do you know how worried we've been?"

"I can't go back right now."

Horohoro let out a sigh,

"Yeah I know, you can't. None of the others can either." There was something... there was always something. "It's stupid but we're all drifting apart... without Yoh to keep us together... we don't know what to do..." a thud, crackle as shattered beads rolled across the plastic table.

"Then figure it out baka-ainu, if that imaginary brain of yours exists, prove it." An empty bottle of milk was placed in front of him. Ren stood up carrying the last five bottles to... wherever he was going.

Arms... enclosed around him in a cushioned hug. Ren's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before realizing that it was only Horohoro.

Only Horohoro?

Horohoro buried his face in Ren's neck for a second,

"Don't come back please... whatever you do don't come back..."

Ren closed his eyes.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Amidamaru tapped the spiritual barriers surrounding the house. The gray haired warrior sighed then he turned around,

"Anna..." the blond girl had a seal in between her fingers, he watched it fly in slow motion as it stuck on his forehead and bent him to her will.

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Yellow red flames corresponded with the violet black clawing higher, and still higher into the air. One emitted heat, warmth, the other reflected a chill, but both were used to seek the users past, present and future.

Hao sighed malignantly but with a touch of regret having forgotten some of the things that happened before.

Jun would have sunk to her knees but she was already on them. Ran watched her daughter sadly as the visions in the flames continued.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

As Ren's feet carried him further away from town he suddenly spoke out loud,

"It's almost over..."


	8. Chapter 8: Love

**A.C.:** -sleeps-

* * *

**Warnings: **Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs

**Possession:** Chapter 8- Love

* * *

Hao twisted his finger into Ren's, resisting the urge to kiss him again when those wonderful gold eyes opened to blink blearily up at him.

"Mine," he repeated, both vocally and mentally. He pressed their bodies together, sharing the heat and feeling the faint beats of the shaman's heart under the ribs.

"You don't love me." Ren stated flatly, all pretenses of false illusions banished from his sight.

"No I don't," agreed Hao though reluctantly. "I love you for what you represent." He smiled sardonically at the thoughtful look blossoming in Ren's eyes. But Ren had known, from the beginning and perhaps to the end. He was nothing more than a possession to Hao. "And you have to admit," he whispered nastily biting his earlobes,

"You don't love me either Ren."

Ren shuddered as Hao sucked his ears teasingly, leaving a trail of saliva over the sensitized skin.

The truth of their relationship...

"You're with me... your body, your soul... and yet your mind still drifts back to the one that you left behind. The one who betrayed you," harsh jerk and the strings holding Ren's Chinese shirt flew open exposing his naked chest to the open air. The wound was still raw and very much red, tenderly how fingered it before digging his nails into it, acquiring a pained hiss from the gold eyed shaman. "Yes, you have loved my younger twin for a long time now and you've confused him with me." The nails dug in further causing blood to erupt almost like roses under the sun. "But remember Ren you're mine... just like you were mine 1000 years ago."

"I can't have been yours if I'm still here right now staring at your ugly face." Snarled Ren trying to push away the offending hands.

Hao smiled complacently,

"That's what I like about you Ren..." Hao captured Ren's lips in a kiss before pulling away to stroke the reopened wound. "You can be so innocent at times..."

Hao's eyes were pale

-

-

"I saw him..." said Horohoro morosely daring to disturb Faust in one of his make out sessions with his 'dead' wife. 'Dead' being a fickle term when it came to those with shamanic gifts.

Chocolove's mouth dropped open, so sure of Faust's likely act of trying to dissect them all for interrupting his quality time with Eliza. Or it could have been the fact that Horohoro had seen Ren.

All attempts of contact to the Tao clan in China had failed. Bason's tablet long been emptied of its occupant. These days not even Amidamaru bothered to drop a hello or bring news from Yoh, which was really odd itself...

"I saw him..." said the ice shaman, "and I fucking let him go..." Chocolove tried to joke, and found himself speechless as the Ainu continued. "I think Hao has him somewhere around here... he couldn't have gone that far..."

"Dude it's Hao you're talking about... besides if he **_is_** alive... he'd come back for Yoh wouldn't he?" The American shaman had a somewhat skeptical look on his face. Horohoro didn't blame him.

"Yeah he would, that's what I'm worried about." Slurping his milkshake and watching particularly at nothing they bathed in an uneasy silence. Chocolove kicked a small pebble from underneath him towards the leg of a random lady and quickly looked away.

"I've been sensing negative vibes around Yoh and Anna." Spoke Faust, a little disgruntled, Horohoro looked up surprised.

"Yeah... that's why I sent Pirika back to Hokkaido." Faust nodded once, maybe twice, it was hard to tell really.

"A wise choice but I'm afraid I will not accompany you on this **_mission_** of yours." The violet eyes were concentrated on the matching pairs of his wife, he gave Eliza another kiss.

"Huh? Why not?"

Faust twirled the blond locks of his dead wife lovingly, his fingers caressing its way up the golden cascade and towards the scalp.

"Miss Anna was the one to bring back Eliza, I owe her much."

"You just don't want Eliza to get sealed or something." Pout growled Horohoro. Faust shrugged,

"That too, shall I call for Ryu then?" Horohoro looked relieved,

"Yeah, that would be great." Chocolove decided to butt in, complete with a wiggly purple costume with bulbous purple sacks attached to it.

"But I'm grape!"

-

-

Anna was robed in a lovely salmon colored kimono with milky white petals adorning the sleeves. A red sash binding the pink cloth to her body she opened the steaming door of the spring to see Yoh dutifully cleaning himself with a spice scented soap.

"Yoh," she called eventually as he washed off the soap. "Come here."

"Yes Anna." He replied monotonously standing up his pink skin barely hidden from view by the pillowing pillars of steam. He kneeled before her, the long locks of chocolate brown hair touching the ground.

"Look at me Yoh..." he looked up, his vacant eyes seemingly unfocused and devoid of a single shred of intellect. She brushed her cool hands against the warmth of Yoh's cheeks. "Undress me Yoh..."

-

-

Hao awoke from his perch on the tree to a mounting feeling of arousal. He entertained a fond memory before turning his attention back towards the growing problem at hand.

'About time Yoh got laid, even to a bitch like her but why now of all times!' he looked longingly towards the windows of the hidden alcove, he would get an assassination attempt yes but something about being horny made you feel quite invincible. 'Run I miss you...'

A dagger flew out of the window missing Hao by mere centimeters. Hao had easily evaded this but he was curious as to what he was supposed to have done now.

'Perhaps reopening his wound wasn't a good idea.' Ren had found out the hard way that having a hole in his chest away from civilization was a painful thing. It didn't help that Hao **_liked_** to tear apart the carefully sewn stitches either. Watching his sister and Faust, Ren had learned how to patch himself up but the actual healing process is encouraged by getting some rest. Something he was not going to get with Hao around, horny or murderous.

"Shut up you bastard! I need my sleep! If you want me awake that much you're welcome to burn this thing shut!" after hearing the suggestion Hao had flat out refused to burn the slash shut.

'Well as long as Ren's awake...' seeing the look in Hao's eyes Ren realized that he should have stayed put. No matter how annoying Hao's ramblings were getting to be.

"Ren... if you're so set on mutilating yourself I'll show you how to summon the flames..." a purr was inserted at the end of the sentence and it made Ren, if anything, more distressed at the prospect of dealing with a horny Hao.

But Hao had never actually tried to teach anything.

Eyeing the Japanese shaman suspiciously he jumped out through the window, wincing as the new stitches tugged at his skin. He patted the slash wound, making sure that none of the stitchings had torn. Being a sibling to a necromancer had its perks sometimes, his stitches were strong.

He glared up at the Japanese shaman, waiting to bolt in case of the worst case scenario.

"Show me..."

-

-

Anna held Yoh closer to herself, when they became one she felt a faint link connecting him to something. She had first thought Ren but... she narrowed her eyes as the euphoria of sex wore off and she became more aware of her surroundings. Yoh had fallen asleep, from actual reaction or subconscious reasoning she did not know but she realized that it was her room that they were in.

She had kicked out Tamao and Manta days ago, Amidamaru was under her command, her parents, and grandparents-in-law were unaware of the hostile take over (They thought that Yoh was trying to please his fiance by putting more hours in study and training). She was holding Yoh prisoner, if it came down to it she would stage their murder using him.

"Hao," she spoke out loud, "he's alive..."

Yoh squirmed a little under the red covers, unwilling to awaken. Anna was feeling generous; she would allow Yoh that much luxury at least...

'Why couldn't you accept me?'

Yoh whimpered slightly in his sleep,

"You're **_mine_** now Yoh."

* * *

**A.C.:** I'm not insane, nope, whatever gave you **_that_** idea? And yes, I know Chocolove's pun was painful but it was more painful for me cuz I was the one who had to write it TT;; 


	9. Chapter 9: Pillars

**A.C.:** hmm... since I'm following the Japanese language thing type thing 'Run' would actually be pronounced as roon, or rune. Just in case anyone decided to imprint permanently in their mind that 'Run' was pronounced... well run.

Oh yeah, only few chapters left, I might make it in time for Christmas –Grins widely-

* * *

**Warnings: **Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs 

**Possession:** Chapter 9- Pillars

* * *

Yoh chops the vegetables like a dutiful servant rhythmically dicing the plants in order to prepare them into food, and that the tempo sooths him somehow... at the back of his shackled mind.

A billowing cape and the pace break after trying to weave around the interruption. In its stead the large butcher knife is thrown still flecked with small bits of carrots and onions and the cucumbers from half an hour ago. Hao dodges easily, you'd have to when you have Ren as your bed partner.

"Weak as always eh Yoh?" Yoh stares vacantly with his chocolate colored eyes, conversation wasn't something programmed into him when his mind had been sealed by Anna. Hao smiles inwardly at the blonde's handy work. "She did a quite a number on you not that you realize of course..." he grinned maliciously at his younger twin before adding, "was she good in bed? Was she better than Run?" Yoh does not recognize the taunting and he stands still, his eyes rolling back and forth to show their whites. "Pathetic." Hao finally spits out, "Perhaps you'll show more reaction when I go after that precious blonde of yours."

"Do not harm Anna-sama..." Yoh manages to choke out, but Hao is gone but Yoh knows where he and she is. Yoh hastily runs towards the cemetery where everything all happened.

_Where he befriended Manta_

_Where he met Amidamaru_

_Where he defeated Ryu_

_Where he saw..._

-

-

Anna prays or rather she meditates. It calms her when her emotions get too much, when her thoughts become tangled, when some things that shouldn't happen do.

Or perhaps she was just waiting for them to happen.

She had known, from the painful moments of her birth, who she was and what she was born to be. She had known behind her deceptive hazel eyes what she must do. She knew about Run, Ren and Hao... and everything else that had led to her reincarnation. She just hadn't taken Yoh in to equation. Or had she while staring dreamily into the orange fires some centuries before?

She had tried, really tried this time, because there was a part of her that was still the innocent and carefree girl that used to collect herbs on the mountain side. The small big part that is still scared of bugs and rats, the one that cares so much yet has never been recognized. The one that chips away with time but still retains some hold.

But...

She meditated with her white ropes slipping off her shoulders as the winds grew dangerously stronger, and perhaps for the first time in her thousand years of existence, she prayed.

Hao...

"Do you remember?" The caped figure seemed to shudder at the impact of those words. A glimmer of red aura flared behind him into glorious flames that began clawing up at the waning crescent.

"It's funny..." Hao laughs slightly looking away, "I should be asking you the same thing eh?" Anna pins him with glares before shifting her hands into a seal, or more accurately, a key.

"You lied... you were supposed to make me your 'beloved' wife." her hands part then clap together. A ghastly blue aura seeps from her body and drains on to the ground. Immediately deads from long before rise to meet their maker,

"But how can I have lied? I never promised in the first place?"

First fight,

**Hao**- 1

**Anna**- 0

-

-

"So where are we going again?" whined Ryu as they ran up the concrete road leading to Yoh's house.

"I told you!" Horohoro screamed as he resisted the urge to do so, oh wait he just did.

"Something's wrong with Yoh, and we're going to find out what." Chocolove frowned,

"But Horohoro, we don't even know if something is wrong with him! Maybe Anna's been a little harsh on him this week..."

A cold laughter rang from behind them, clear and sarcastic.

"Not really, it's just that Yoh's been possessed in the finest form of possession..."

-

-

"So the whore and her bitch has returned..." smirked Anna all-knowingly as she peered at the four past Hao's shoulders.

"Ugh... I don't feel so good..." groaned Ryu collapsing on his knees.

"Let go of your oversoul, it'll make you feel better." Said Horohoro calmly,

"How do you know that?" grunted Ryu as the oversoul disappeared. Instantly he felt better though he couldn't exactly explain why he did,

"I feel like I've been in this situation before." An eerie light crept up on the Ainu as he seemingly began to flare under the moonlight.

"So we're all here..." said Hao softly, "your move Anna."

And as he said the final syllable, the spirits gathered around Anna's moon white form attacked...

-

-

"I see two pillars…" Came the sweet voice of Jeanne, "One has crumbled down to ashes but the other still stands..." and Lyserg awoke from his revere staring out the window of the limousine as Marco cleaned his glasses over and over again.

"Lady Jeanne?" asked Lyserg sleepily as the silver tressed maiden smiled expectantly at him.

"It'll be easier if you didn't meddle in their affairs, it has nothing to do with you." Said Marco in a bored voice, but added, "If you must, do it another time..."

Jeanne smiled contently closing her mystifying pink eyes.

-

-

Yoh came up at them faster than they had thought; they leapt away but without an oversoul there was so much they could do to inflict damage on the rampaging Japanese shaman. A jet of black flames were thrown into Yoh's face as a distraction as Horohoro, seemingly testing out a new brand of power grabbed Yoh's left arm. It was frozen solid in mere moments as he landed neatly behind Chocolove.

Chocolove in turn struck Yoh out of the air and into the ground with a feline grace that anyone could have been jealous of. The American shaman did not quite understand what was going on but was happy to provide service until Yoh got knocked back into the right state of mind.

Ryu was about to poke Yoh into the land of living until Hao came down from his lofty perch over a headstone. He grabbed Yoh by the front of his shirt sneering cruelly as the flames erupted behind him for an additional effect. He threw a casual look back at the expressionless itako before facing his hazy eyed twin.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a familiar scene..."

Ren's eyes were cast in the shadows, Horohoro looked slightly uncomfortable. Chocolove and Ryu looked flat out mortified, Hao threw his head back and laughed as the fires began licking at the feet of Yoh.

Ren's hand was shaking, Horohoro held his hands out preventing the others from reaching out. Then Hao did the unexpected, instead of eliciting the soul from the body and consuming it, the semi-immortal shaman gave his twin a full French kiss.

But the effects soon became apparent as Yoh's body began melting together into

Hao's to create one powerful whole...

Hao looked up as an odd mixture of Yoh in happiness and contentment. What he failed to notice was the prayer beads still hanging around his neck.

Anna smirked, the blonde itako made a sign with her hands. Hao gripped his chest in reaction, the Japanese shaman's eyes widened before looking disbelievingly at his ex-fiance.

**Anna**- 1

**Hao**- 1

* * *

**(Edit):** Yeah I'm still fixing things 


	10. Chapter 10: Break

**A.C.:** I'm almost finished I'm almost finished I'm almost finished... all those hits gone ㅠㅠ

* * *

**Warnings:** Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs-

**Possession: **Chapter 10- Break

* * *

"The balance is corrupt..." grumbled a small figure as he looked into the fires. Then he added,

"Worthless little grandson." Tao Ran allowed herself a small smile in spite of the bleak situation. The black flames were like dark mirrors, they often threw off inverse images of what could have been and not what was happening in the present. Pity, if only they had managed to have Ren longer in China they might have been able to teach him more about the black fires Tao En so possessively wielded.

But now looking at the figure of her son using the flames like a mere afterthought her heart bloomed with pride.

"Anna is very resourceful," mused Asakura Keiko, flicking her long hair over her shoulders.

"I must say you have an impeccable taste in fiancés... though this is probably the reason why we never bothered attaching one to Ren." Keiko shrugged, straining her eyes into the fire.

While Asakura's used the flames as a sort of a crystal ball they didn't know how to see the visions correctly. All that had been brought on by Hao and ended with him, the exact procedure unknown to all except him.

To put it simply, they tried too hard. One must have control over the malevolent fire, but their eyes must be clear enough to take in what is presented.

Jun blinked despairingly into the black fires, her green hair limp and almost touching the ground. Bason was a mere shadow at her feet.

"They are fools, all of them." Snorted Mikihisa,

The flames grew taller...

Like hands clawing towards the sky...

-

-

Hao made a desperate grab for the beads surrounding his neck before collapsing onto his knees. He began coughing, retching up whitish clear liquid at each one. Glaring angrily at Anna he bid the flames to cover him, only... they did not come.

"Hao," he froze, sweat trickling down his throat as he wiped his mouth, he breathed into the perfume of his tormentor as he stood up and walked towards the blond itako. She looked pleased, she should be, she had tamed Hao the mighty.

For now at least, Ren swore angrily but it did not stop Anna from touching Hao. She tucked back the long locks and turned him around to face the others, almost like introducing him anew to the group. In fact, this Hao did not look much like Hao at all. His eyes, so pale when angered had darkened to a blackish brown. His hair was shorter though considerably longer than Anna's, and he had that blasted necklace on.

'Idiot...' something inside Horohoro whispered and he felt inclined to agree, until he realized that talking to yourself in the middle of a battle wasn't the smartest thing to do either.

"For your first task," the itako announced proudly, Amidamaru appeared a shadow of his former self with a tattered seal pasted over his forehead. "Feed the spirit of fire," she jerked her head slightly at the samurai spirit behind her. "Then you may go and terminate your little friends."

Hao raised his hands, and the spirit of fire appeared roaring in its magnificent glory. With one clawed swoop he held Amidamaru who was just beginning to wake up from the effects of possession... but too late as he was absorbed in the fiery abyss that made up the spirit of fire.

It was as if a part of them all had been purged away. Like a tye dye shirt thrown in a vat of bleach until drained of a color. Like with a snip of a blade, some piece of their paper hearts had been cut out.

"Anna how dare you..." hissed Hao, Yoh, his face twitching in the most unpleasant way. Anna merely pushed him forward, directing him like a puppet he really was. Hands twitching sporadically flames shot out towards what had once been his, Yoh's friends, all too quick before they had a chance to react.

The flames lanced towards them, and something within Horohoro snapped to rear its head for the first time in 500 years...

-

-

It simply wasn't in Kyoyama Anna's books to dirty her hands over nothing. Even if oh say killing her rival of near 1000 bloody years and counting. But killing them all through Hao was good enough, and seeing how he was complete being fused with Yoh, well let's say it made revenge taste a little more sweeter than before.

To see the fruits of her labor blooming before her eyes,

To see that this time it would be her that came out on top.

Anna smiled.

-

-

A ghastly howl, one that chilled their blood to the bone, what shocked them the most was the state of Horohoro and most of all, the faint outlines of a beast forming over his head. Horohoro jerked, almost as if the spirit was climbing out of his body or perhaps it was... the fire had dissipated, Anna looked displeased and they were alive. That was enough... for now... 

"Well Hao dear..." Anna purred, "Looks like you'll have to get your hands dirty **_this_** time..."

Hao glared back, just barely enough to show Anna that he still retained control over his free will.

"Fuck you,"

Anna responded mildly,

"But you already have." Throwing a haughty look towards Chocolove, Ryu, Horohoro and Ren she pointed at the blue haired Ainu who still seemed to be trapped in a phase of ascension.

"Horokeu, how nice of you to join us at last." Recognition and relief seeped into Ren's eyes,

"Horokeu... the wolf..."

-

-

'Snap' they had vastly underestimated Hao/Yoh's ability to attack. Chocolove howled in pain as his wrist snapped and blistered before the Japanese shaman let him go. The dark eyes were unreadable as the darker shaman cradled his broken wrist towards the ground, his claws slightly tracing the quivering muscle.

They hadn't been able to summon any form of oversoul, or at least if they did they quickly became incapacitated due to the suffering atmosphere that Anna had put up. And so they improvised, 100 percent possession, a pitifully weak comparison to Hao's even when the odds were four against one.

And Ren didn't even have that

A feral howl and Horokeu ricocheted off of Hao leaving trails of crystalline ice all over the other shaman's arm.

"You alright Chocolove?" the ice shaman's voice was raspy, more animalistic. Chocolove nodded as ice encased his broken wrist in a protective cocoon. The effect was instantaneous, the American shaman sighed in relief as the coat of ice cooled the sporadic muscles seeping deeper into the broken bones.

"Bad dog," Anna commented idly from the sidelines, "dogs should obey their masters ne Hao?" Hao said nothing as somehow teleported in front of Horokeu and knocked him into a tree.

"HYYYAA-" Ryu's battle cry was cut short as a flaming fist slammed into his stomach. He exhaled and sputtered before kneeling on the floor hugging his middle. The ghoulish purple glow around him had dispersed leaving Hao's own crimson to shine over him.

Hao raised his hands, flames erupting from the tips as he brought it back down on Ryu's back.

What had started out as a scream withered away into a high pitched shriek. And from behind them Ren aimed his spear groundwards in midair,

"SUPER GOL...!" Hao had left Ryu's blistering form appearing before him in a blink of an eye, but that wasn't what scared Ren the most. His eyes pleading Hao, Yoh's hand reached out briefly to touch Ren's face... before slamming it in his neck and almost breaking it. Ren closed his eyes.

'_You're forgiven'_

-

-

"I have a feeling that my little brother's fiancé just might try to kill me in the next week or so…"

"Oh? Shouldn't it be your holy duty to go and kill her or something?" Ren's voice contained bits of barely controlled venom as he wiggled away from Hao's grasp. Hao watched in amusement as Ren turned around indignantly.

"The same marks," he said suddenly tracing the markings on Ren's back.

Ren shivered feeling the smooth skin rubbing at the barely closed wound overlapping a larger scar. The vertical one he had gotten through the courtesy of Nichrome, the other... Ren shivered recalling the look in Yoh's eyes when he plunged the katana into his gut. He still had the prayer beads, he took it out every once in a while to sulk over them.

"I think you're confusing me someone else Hao."

"Perhaps you're right."

And gently Hao kissed him

-

-

_Hands poised delicately over the clear water, the tip of her middle finger barely touching the surface as a vibrant red and white koi nibbled on it creating ripples over its reflective surface. _

_One of the kois jumped out of the water, mouth agape, almost as to swallow the stars before diving back into the water. The silver droplets landed on the silk, leaving darker mottles on the precious cloth. Run observed all this in slow motion, how the water rolled, spun in air before landing on her._

_Run laid on her back in indigo splashed white silk as she gazed up at the nights sky. It wouldn't matter if the rich silk got sullied in her actions, not when she had hundreds more like them. And the night's sky was oh so clear... _

_Her black hair spreading across behind her head like a shadowy halo, Hao couldn't help but admire the heavenly visage as he sat on the windowsill occasionally wondering about a gift worthy of the earthbound celestial. Remnants of last night's kiss still deeply imprinted in his mind he set his foot on the marbled and gold flooring and called out..._

-

-

Ren wheezed as he felt a rib or two break as he collided with the headstone. He rolled over and saw that the others were in a similar situation. Light footsteps fell around him; he didn't need to turn his head to get a look. The sound had been imprinted on his mind some centuries ago; he did not bother trying to yell out as he was lifted up by the neck.

Asakura Hao held the Chinese shaman by the pale column of his neck almost daring for the world to see, but his eyes were in a tormented chaos, all too aware of what Anna's next command would be.

"Hao..." she hissed all her malice, spite, jealousy, and anger weighing upon those few words. "Kill him!"

Hao choked, his hands spasming as he fought fiercely to get it back control. But the bonds that surrounded his neck held and his fingers grew more and more tighter around the thin neck. Ren grasped at Hao's gloved wrists though there was no strength behind it. Perhaps a plea... but Anna showed no signs of relenting as everyone of the gold eyed shaman's breath carried him towards his last.

"Ren..." whimpered Horokeu, digging his nails into the dirt and forcing his face up, "You can't..." he faltered as he pushed himself into an upright sitting position. "Ren..." he held his hands out barely managing to stand up as a ghostly reminder of a wolf guided his dislocated bones into their proper positions.

Chocolove managed to get his damaged but luckily unbroken hand from under him, the American shaman grasped at the Japanese shaman's ankles silently willing his soul free. And for a moment it seemed as though Hao had the upper hand...

Something wet dropped onto the red glove, and the ground below it.

Tears?

Anna looked furious, without hearing her he knew what words had been uttered. And yet as he wrought the life out of Ren he couldn't help but watch more like a third person, watch as the pieces fell in place and the events fold into a devastating end.

Hao watched with his jaws slack, mesmerized by the crystalline tears that traced their way down the bloodied cheeks of Tao Ren. His eyes were soft and glowing, almost understanding as few more squeezed out of the luminescent gold orbs. Hand fell limp by his side as he slowly murmured...

"_Hao..."_

"Boss don't do it," whimpered Ryu, clutching his stomach in silent agony.

"_I think..."_ eyes became half lidded as he began to suffocate

Horokeu took off at a running start; ice bound to his wrists into a deadly dagger that was growing by the precious seconds it took to reach them.

"REN!"

"_I can now say..."_ And the world began spiraling into a kaleidoscope of one...

"HAO KILL HIM! KILL HIM NOW!" Anna stood up from her seat eyes flashing as an aura of white shrieked obscenities at them, she held out her hand, her hands feeding the beaded necklace her own personal power as she did so.

"_...That I love you..."_

Hao's eyes widened, but Ren's eyes had already gone past the ability of being able to see...

'_...With clarity...'_

And Ren's neck gave away beneath the pressure of Hao's hands, the body already falling towards the ground...

'_Let there be light'_

"REEEEEN!"

* * *

**A.C.:** I'm just weird, I don't know why... 


	11. Chapter 11: Owari

**A.C.:** Second to last chapter… -sleeps- Thank you all those who have dared to read this far.

* * *

**Warnings: **Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs 

**Possession:** Chapter 11- Owari

* * *

The world exploded around them in a maelstrom of light. The everything caught on fire, even the freshly polished gravestones glowing red before combusting into thousand pieces. 

Horokeu erected a shield of ice around the others in an attempt to protect them from lashing fire. He didn't need to have though, even if the heat would have gotten to them if they had chosen to stay long, the blazing inferno wouldn't have touched them. No, Hao was focused on Anna and perhaps a kinder fraction of his mind, Yoh he hoped, was attempting to guard them. A poor compensation for Ren's death indeed, no, he shook his head pushing back the locks of icy blue hair that had come down as a result of the missing headband.

HewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntde

adhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasn

tdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewa

sntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadHewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdeadhewasntdead...

"Ren..." echoed Chocolove as Horokeu froze the burnt right hand that had been on Hao, "he can't be dead..." when the silence of the Ainu, pained half sobs and groans from Ryu, and the furious roar of Asakura Hao offered an answer he covered his eyes with his left arm and wept.

"Fuck..."

Horokeu couldn't agree more.

-

-

Kyoyama Anna was also having problems, she knew that there was a possibility of the necklace breaking but didn't consider that the barrier preventing the usage of oversouls shattering under the surge of furyoku around Hao.

She could only stare as the shards of the barrier and the bead necklace fall around them in a hail of silver rainbow. Then she feels the burning sensation at her neck,

Hao...

'_How I have loved you and yet…'_

A lightning saber at her neck, the skin below it starting to tingle and boil, she looked on impassively as Hao panted, whatever tears he had shed or had planning to shed wiped away by the inferno that surrounded him.

"Why?" He asked, "Why? Why couldn't you let us be!" Anna shut her eyes,

"Why couldn't you love me!" she shrieked tears overflowing as the blade scratched the surface of her neck creating a searing wound. "Why couldn't you take me in place of that bitch! What did she have that I didn't!" the weeping scratch stained her the neck of her snowy white robe pink. "I thought you loved me..." she sobbed collapsing onto her knees.

Hao sighed softly and gazed apathetically at her.

"Not in that way... never..." with a flick of his wrist the grave marker underneath her gave away, split in half. "Never..." everyone within hearing distance shivered at the amount of venom carried in those words. "But you have what you want now don't you? My parents and grandparents will take good care of you I believe..."

Anna looked up horrified at him, Hao turned back to face his friends... no Yoh's friends as they struggled to stay alive just barely staying alive.

"I'm sorry..."

Neither could tell which of them had said it.

-

-

"We're too late ne Lyserg?" smiled Jeanne as the green haired X-Law stared dismayed at the battleground spread before him. Behind him Marco gave a grunt, approval or not he couldn't tell but he found himself running through the carnage towards the center where Hao... Yoh? A combination of both standing into the middle surrounded by bodies in state of semi-consciousness.

"HAO!" even in a state of despair, hatred was something not to be forgotten. The said fire shaman leaped over the crystal quite easily staring morosely down at them all when he landed with a soft thump on a still burning tree.

"Horohoro, Ryu, Chocolove, Anna, Are you alright!" shouted Lyserg frantically as the crystal rebounded back, sliding itself back in the launcher. The green haired British knelt down by Ryu's side probing for wounds and drawing back immediately when he was rewarded it a pained yelp.

"Looks like the show's over..." said a drifty voice as it came out of the shadows. Faust had come back, too late to make a difference but early enough to save the others. He went to work immediately on Ryu's crushed ribs as Lyserg pushed Horohoro and Chocolove into sitting positions.

The gray haired maiden however had other ideas. Seemingly untouched by the bloodbath around her she literally glowed as she approached the body of one who was still immobile, followed by the much taller blonde as he clicked his tongue pushing his glasses up.

Mysteriously, Jeanne knelt down hands skimming the broken neck before traveling to the vacant eyes and closing them. Hao hissed in response but she paid no heed,

"He's dead Hao..." Marco moved, too quick to be expected of such tall frame.

The saber smashed against the gun momentarily fading before pushing the X-Laws back. Jeanne moved over towards where Lyserg was, how Faust tried to keep the fallen shamans in the lands of living. But in her eyes they were gone beyond the point of return to tainted to remain alive in this world.

Pushing the violet eyed doctor back, the silver haired maiden touched Ryu's face watching it light up before fading. She gently put her hands around his neck and with a quiet flare of furyoku snapped the neck as easily as Hao had snapped Ren's.

Lyserg watched in horror as life faded away from the large body and the soul became imprisoned in the curve of her hands before being released.

"Jeanne-sama, what are you doing!" but she paid him no heed as she began approaching the surely doomed American and the Ainu.

-

-

Up in the air Marco was faring no better than Ryu had against Jeanne's hands. He was flung like a wasp in the air before Hao turned his attention towards the ground. He struck, the bullet missing barely by an inch, conquering few strands of HaoYoh's silky hair before imbedding itself upon the ground. Marco allowed himself a small smirk before being thrown in the air.

-

-

The green haired woman girl watched as the shadowed flames told the steadily unfolding story. Ran had looked away when Ren had fallen on the ground, his neck bent in an impossible angle for those who were living but Jun pressed herself to look on. Look on at her brother's friend, tormentor, rival, enemy... lover?

Tears seeped mutely from her blue eyes as the rest watched on, awaiting the conclusion of the newest arrival would bring.

-

-

Horokeu looked away as the leader of the X-Laws approached, his wolf fading as fast as it had come slinking off to the darkness of his heart leaving him with an aching hollowness in both body and mind. He briefly squeezed Chocolove's hands reassuringly. It was fitting... in a rather morbid way... how a shaman would die in a graveyard.

Kororo danced around his vision like a hyperactive two year old assuring her shaman that she would protect him. Mick joined in trying to urge his shaman to get up and fight, make her laugh, or even crack a stupid joke. A sign that they would be alright.

The light footsteps were almost unnoticeable, almost. She frowned semi-apologetically at them all before reaching out to touch the dark skin.

A gloved hand wrenched her away from the two shamans; Faust's eyes were smouldering in fury as Eliza floated ominously behind him.

"Stay away from them..." he hissed letting her go. She seemed aloof and rather amused by all this,

"You wanted no part of this, why the change?" she asked her voice chiming in their heads. "you were the one who abandoned them but now you want to help, why?" she gave him no time to answer however as a angel appeared between them and pushed him back.

Lyserg ran up to her,

"Jeanne-sama please, why are you killing them!" Jeanne smiled kindly at him, patting his head as to assure a frightened child.

"Do not worry, I am simply saving them from a worse fate." Lyserg became glued to the spot as Kororo and Mick flung themselves at the silver tressed shamaness only to pass through her as she continued on.

She cupped Horohoro's battered face in her right hand as her left edged for his heart. The wolf in him began to growl uneasily as the edges of jagged ice began to grow around him. She gave him a chaste kiss on the cheeks before pressing her hand against where his heart should be. Long before the pain began Horokeu heard the howls reverberating off the chambers of his heart. His last view was of the iron maiden's crimson eyes as Marco and Hao fought in the background.

In a way, it was a strangely beautiful scene as the blood came off in ashes from the maiden's hands.

-

-

In Hokkaido Pirika suddenly began to weep as she stared out the window watching the rising sun.

-

-

"Horohoro...?" breathed Chocolove, straining open one bruised eye as the ice shaman breathed his last. "HOROHORO!" but Jeanne, for her delicate frame was too much for him as she bore down on him pressing their foreheads against each other's as she wove their fingers together...

-

-

It was as if someone had taken his heart out and broken it into multiple fragments. He gave a surprised gasp and didn't bother looking around when a bullet lodged itself in his back. Spirit of Fire consumed Raphael in an instant along with Marco, himself bursting into flames like the phoenix of the mythologies down on to the horrified Anna below.

-

-

Iron maiden Jeanne allowed herself another smile.

Not batting an eye at the loss of perhaps her most powerful follower she smiled placidly at Anna her hands rubbing the blonde's lower belly affectionately.

"Are you going to kill me too?" the deadened voice asked, Jeanne got up and freed Lyserg of his paralysis. Lyserg fell to his knees weeping and hitting the ground with his fists. Faust watched on in sorrow clenching and unclenching his hands repeatedly.

"No Anna, but take good care of the child... it bares no marks of the sins its father inflicted upon this world." Without a word Anna looked away as Lyserg and Jeanne left leaving only her, Faust and his wife Eliza on the devastated cemetery.

Anna closed her eyes hugging her lower stomach protectively.

Faust didn't blame her as he retraced the footsteps the others had taken.

* * *

**  
A.C.:** I bet this didn't end the way you thought it would. But there's an epilogue coming up so don't go away.


	12. Chapter 12: Epilogue

**AshenPhoenix**- -serious voice- On the contrary, according to your profile I'm actually older than you. But yeah... mentally I'm probably worse than a 12 year old. –Switches back to normal voice- I'll change the rating if you think it's that bad but if you think this story is sick, you don't want to know what I'm thinking right now.

**A.C.:** Is it just me or is this really, REALLY OOC? And what's it with me and crybabies? -Feels guilty, offers everyone bandages, painkillers and ice  
cream- That didn't quite turn out like I expected... -winces- uhh... the moment you were waiting for, the final chapter in **Possession** -bows-

* * *

**Warnings:** Character deaths, oocness, slashy-themes, various english mistakes, kinda sorta not really spoilers, random implications that don't mean a thing and oh, Hao. -runs-

**Possession: **Epilogue

* * *

Hao wasn't dead exactly, he was just not living. It was kind of like the feeling he always felt before rebirth, perhaps the feel of safety in his mother's womb, a feeling of pre-existence that foretold a great promise at another life. And perhaps he was just being Hao, always plotting his next move.

He saw the light...

-

-

Hao decided Lyserg Diethel made a nice teacher, nice leaving out all the fancier and disdainful adjectives, but boring. Hao resisted the urge to yawn as he was pelted with a piece of folded up paper.

It was Horokeu, or rather Trey as he was named in this life time frantically motioning with his hands without getting caught by their green haired English teacher. The said teacher made a quiet 'ahem' before going back to explaining the relationship past participles and verbs.

'_Want 2 come over?'_

Hao quickly scribbled back,

'_Love to but I think your mom hates me.'_

Ahh the price of having half of you separated from yourself over time. It made him warm and fuzzy inside just to be asked. To remedy this he flicked the balled up paper perfectly at the center of Trey's forehead. And while Trey tried to explain why he had yelped in the middle of an explanation about future tense words, Hao... renamed Zeke in this lifetime looked out the window.

The week before summer break is the longest after all.

-

-

Time hadn't passed by that quick, compared to other times he had decided to pilgrimate his soul onto another person. It was just one generation after he had died, he frowned, to his knowledge all who died that day had been born... all...

Iron Maiden Jeanne, it irked him to know she knew something. The frail looking self-proclaimed Holy Grail knew something that he Hao, didn't. He calmly resisted the urge to punch the wall. He wouldn't be hurt he knew, but he hadn't lived over a thousand years without learning how to curb his anger and direct it somewhere else. Like trying to live through Trey's unnecessary chatter for instance.

Cutting the blue haired former ice shaman from his ranting about the new cat he had gotten, (who in the right mind would name their cat Chocolove?) Hao stopped looking back and flicking his hair over his shoulders.

"It seems that we have a third party."

"Mou Zeke-sama you're so mean!" pouting a slightly blushing brunette came out from behind the power pole, fiddling her hands behind her back while looking down at the pavement.

"Well, well if it isn't Rio..." Asakura Rio, the daughter between Yoh and Anna and in a strange juxtaposition his daughter... he winced scrutinizing her carefully. She looked like a carbon copy of Anna, except in terms of personalities and height they were nothing alike.

"Rio hey!" Trey waved brightening up, "Wanna come over?" looking up she quickly caught up to them.

"Sure!"

It was rather disconcerting... to see that the brunette was towered over them all, not that he was afraid or anything nope but still... the way she slung her backpack over her back while trailing them like a lost puppy, a big one mind you, he couldn't quite recall a time when any of his offspring were taller than him.

-

-

A rather pretty looking woman greeted them, Trey's mother, giving him a slightly colder look as he came in flashing a grin in reply. He couldn't quite blame her, he still did have the Spirit of Fire at his command, he could have gone far as to say that if it weren't for him Usui Horokeu might have survived that day.

Bah women, Usui Pirika wasn't any different.

Turning Trey's well-loved stereo on past the humane ability to actually listen to it without permanently damaging their ears they hung out occasionally flinging bags of potato chips at each other and jumping on Trey's bed. Something Hao never had done as a child, it was nice... it a weird twisted way.

Near five Rio was called away to make dinner. Hao snorted as Rio waved her goodbyes, from what he had seen in Yoh's mind Anna hadn't changed at all. But still it was curious as how Anna stayed so thin while doing absolutely nothing but lay in front of TV all day long.

Hao was to stay for dinner; he really didn't have anywhere else to go anyways. Trey's father, an unnamed entity in Hao's world, greeted him jovially before hiding his face behind an outdated newspaper. The dinner was good, and Trey walked him home on the account that the precious supply of coffee had run out.

"Hey look at this!" Hao twitched,

"H... Trey if this is another picture of your blasted cat..." he stopped short as a picture was shoved in front of him. He grew pale and he realized that he must have stepped back for the picture was considerably far away than it had first been.

"It's my cousin! He's going to come over for summer break from China, he's a little rude at first but he's a great guy once you get past that... and his numerous spears. He made a promise not to bring them in the house though, mom was firm on that after he nearly destroyed the bath..." Trey frowned realizing that Hao was not listening to him, "Zeke? What's wrong?" slowly the odd look in the brunette's eyes faded as he turned to look at the blunette. Something had fractured inside; he swallowed slowly before trying to reply.

"I..."

"You have the same look you had on when we first met, and when I showed you my cat, and the time when you met Rio..." Trey had begun to count, folding a finger for each name he rattled out, "and that time when you saw our English teacher, maybe that was because of the green hair... what about the time he saw Chocolove's veterinarian Faust? Well he's sorta scary so I understand that..." Hao put on a shaky smile, remnants of one called Yoh hoping it would suffice.

"It's nothing," Trey didn't buy it but didn't press on either. To the former shaman's credit he didn't say anything along the lines of 'I'll be there if you need me' crap either. For once, ok maybe twice or three times he was glad to have Trey at his side. Even if he didn't remember their past history.

"Come on let's get you home you stupid pyro..." Trey began to head on whistling a lonely tune while swinging the white shopping bag. Oddly enough it included milk though no one in the family, not even the cat, actually drank it or put it in coffee.

"Hao," Hao closed his eyes and for the first time in his various existences he began to pray. Pray that everything would go right this time... pray for... life?

"Hnn?"

Hao began walking towards the small, rented apartment where he lived with a guardian named Oyamada Manta.

The short blonde had taken him in when he first appeared on his doorsteps some 16 years ago and had said nothing about him being a once evil shaman hell bent on taking over the world. Simply renamed him Oyamada Zeke and adopted him. When Hao had been old enough to ask why the blonde had simply answered 'a dept unpaid'. Manta was now a professor at a nearby university giving Hao a generous allowance as long as he didn't try to take over the world with it. Hao hadn't known if he was joking or not.

At the doorsteps they had parted, Hao gracing him with a sad look as Trey handed him a bottle of milk saying 'I've seen you look at Rio, maybe if you drink lots of it you'll grow up, maybe...' Trey hadn't known how much the comment had hurt him.

Manta opened the door,

"Zeke you're back? And what's with the milk?"

-

-

The week flew by quick, even in classes. During that time he had basically stalked Anna into paranoia, set fire to the park benches, goofed off with Trey and Rio as usual, harassed Lyserg as much as he could, had been psycho-analyzed by Faust of all people, fed Chocolove remnants of fried pig intestines Pirika knew he hated, and had visited the restored cemetery where they had all... died... or in Hao's case visited the state of status where he patiently waited for the right time to be reborn.

"Remembering?" a soft voice said from behind him, Hao didn't bother turning around.

"Jeanne, you have some nerve showing up here." A chiming laughter,

"Then I take it you like what I've done?" she inquired stepping up to his side and looking up at him.

Iron Maiden Jeanne hadn't changed at all, except for some growth and maturity of the skin she seemed to be perpetually young compared to the rest of them. She was dressed in a crisp business suit and of all things a tie, it made her look like a child dressed up in her mother's clothing. A woman-girl.

Tucking back a loose strand of silvery hair as she looked away he red eyes trained elsewhere, perhaps the day she **_kindly_** erased everyone's lives.

"Why?"

"Because we are all connected to each other, a bond if you will, cast long before our time." She looked longingly up at the pale blue sky of the dawning morn. Eyes that looked slightly sleepy, almost as if they were...

"Perhaps we are alike in more ways than one," Hao breathed looking at the ashy earth that had never gotten back it's greening cover.

Jeanne's lips tightened slightly and Hao smirked,

"Perhaps," she replied tossing her elegant head, "I suppose you won't mind if I don't elaborate on the subject."

Hao smirked,

"Of course not... _Ai_"

Jeanne looked stunned, her mouth parted a few times (made her look like a fish, Hao thought) but to her credit no words tumbled out. She remained silent, both pensively observing each other.

"We won't meet again Asakura Hao, Yoh... Oyamada Zeke."

"I should hope not, it makes me ill to think of all those years we've known each other."

"Ahaa..." Jeanne merely smiled that annoyingly familiar smile of hers that almost looked like a smirk. And that was that.

-

-

What made a person special, so unique that one would travel through time and space defying the natural laws until one found them again? Really what made Ren so special?

Well besides the obvious perfect figure, gold eyes, silky hair, beautiful face, power...

Hao tried hard not to break the cup in his hands as he stared at Ren. Really that's what he had done all through out dinner. Stare at Horohoro, Trey's Chinese cousin as they ate, talking about monotonous lifestyles and whatnot at the lack of subject to talk about.

And as they finished dinner Hao couldn't help but wonder, who would name their perfectly beautiful child Lenny?

"Help him with unpacking won't you Trey?" asked Pirika as she tossed a flirtatious look at her husband. Trey gagged over his shoulder, winking at Hao before saying,

"Yeah mom, of course, why wouldn't I help my cousin dearest unpack in my nice, clear orderly room?" Pirika gave her son a glare,

"You did clean your room didn't you?" Trey blushed, Pirika turned towards the other two boys, giving Hao a specific glare before smiling,

"Why don't you go watch TV in the living room while Trey cleans his room?" The blue haired teen was about to protest but was silenced at the quiet look of pain and torture blooming within his mother's eyes.

"Err... I'll go do that right now..."

-

-

Manta travels towards a well worn path of stone and dirt. A broom lay abandoned and he looks up, words failing him once again at the sight of a fleet shadow quick to disappear from his mind.

-

-

"It'll be awhile before Trey finishes, anything you want to watch?" Hao moved towards the shelves containing numerous videos of the latest release.

"Wait." Ren, Len had grabbed his wrists, staring up at Hao with his hypnotic gold eyes. "Why do you stare at me like that?" Hao's mind went blank, satisfied that Hao was not going anywhere Lenny let go leaving much to be desired at the lost contact.

"What do you mean?" asked Hao, though he had a possible hypothesis in his mind he was willing to bet the Spirit of Fire on.

"You stare at me like them, like the adults. You stare at me like you know me but at the same time you don't. You stare at me like you expect me to do something but at the same time you know it won't be coming from me. Why do you stare at me like that? Why? Why do they stare at me like that, why do you stare at me like that Zeke? Why do you stare at me like mom, dad and auntie Pirika?"

"It's Hao" corrected Hao absentmindedly. This wasn't what he had expected, he cupped the younger's face in his hands relishing the control the Chinese had inadvertently relinquished.

"You have no idea do you?" whispered Hao, a mad glee in his voice.

Ren flinched, watching the Japanese shaman with weariness.

"About what?" Hao's lips curled, releasing the gold eyed boy from his grip.

"But you've been there."

"Where?" if anything Hao's smirk grows sad as he places a kiss on Len's left eye. Len wrinkles his nose in disgust but does not move away, nor does he run the other through any sharp object like his mind is screaming for him to do...

"Promise..." hands wrap around Len's slim waist, the familiar path of the spine as the hands travel upwards teasing the tender flesh towards the tattoo of the Tao family that's sure to be there. "...that you'll meet me there..." Hao steps back, marveling the threads of raw emotions he had awoken within Len.

"Where?" panic rises within Len though he isn't quite sure why. Eons worth of instincts are burning, electrifying in its intensity. He reaches out for Hao, the one who holds the answers. Hao flickers away in a puff of smoke and sparks, Len runs towards where he was only seconds before...

Ren's persona rises through the chaos,

"I will"

-

-

"Ano... Anna..." Manta gulps as the full force of Anna's glare is directed at him. He merely sweats in response before putting on a shaky smile and hide behind his cup of tea. If anything Anna's glare intensifies before relocating itself on an announcer on TV. Manta sighs in relief before wiping his brow.

"Ehh... I... Ihopemysonhasntbeencausingyoutoomuchtrouble!" he quickly prays to whatever deity that his death will be relatively quick and painless. On second thought Anna hasn't reacted so...

"Your son... happens to be haunting me for some reason..." he could literally see the hazel eyes narrow as she spat out the words one by one. "under normal circumstances I would be thrilled." Manta lets out a series of squeaking chokes before he swallows what remained of his tea. He does not feel the scalding traces as it rushes down his esophagus, he bites his tongue tenderly.

"Ahh..."

"And so... we're back together once more. Like one big family... happily ever after." the TV clicks off and Anna turns to face her visitor.

The years have been kind to Anna, she has grown up a bit, filling in her womanly frame as opposed to a young girly one she had when she bore Rio. Her hair's the same shoulder length tied in a neat ponytail, she looks tight, sexy if Manta had been the one to go for ice princesses. But her eyes are still hard, hard as in 'I'll eat your soul' hard. Manta winces at the last bit.

"Uhh..."

"So they died, now they live again. Together once more but the same theme remains. There are no happy endings for me." Anna rubbed her stomach looking meaningfully at the wall behind the short blond, "I bore children for him, before Rio, before he met her... so why was she so special? What could she do that I couldn't? I was his faithful servant, his apprentice before she got her slimy little fingers on him. I loved him..."

Manta realized with growing despair that this time would be no different than the last, Anna was too caught up in the past. Unwilling to free herself of its thorny snares, unwilling to let it go. It had been that way for what now? 1000 years and counting, her soul was troubled like the rest. None of them would be able to go forward into after life.

"And I still do..."

If only Hao hadn't fallen in love with the only daughter of the all-powerful Tao clan a millennia ago. Only if the Tao heiress hadn't recognized the emotions and had returned the feelings. Only if Anna hadn't fallen in love with the Japanese shaman, only if she had let go of her hatred, her love.

Her obsession,

The emotions that denied her peace.

"What will you do now Manta?" she asked softly, beginnings of tears perched on her lower lashes like morning dew on a green leaf. "what empty words will you give me for comfort knowing that even now they are reaching out for each other?"

-

-

It was almost like sleeping, the dull buzz in your ears before unconsciousness overtook you with full vengeance. The not really memorable part while you let your body carry on as it wished. Feet broke over the calm of dead grass, he was here.

There...

Here...

he blinked, the world righted itself back once more.

Seeing no one else in the cemetery he walked up to a dead tree overlooking the graveyard, marveling how it hadn't rotted away like the rest yet. He put his hand on the graying bark feeling the distinctive coolness spread across his palms. Sighing he knelt down feeling distinctively peaceful than he had ever in conscious lifetime.

"Hao..."

"I was wondering if you'd ever show up... Ren" something hugged Ren from the back, hands slithering up his torso around his chest. Ren's heart clenched painfully as he realized that the movements were familiar. "I was half hoping..." they came face to face, gold eyes staring into watery brown ones. "that you wouldn't..."

-

-

Horokeu came up on an empty room,

"Uhh guys?"

He touched the door nob, to go look for his friend and cousin. But as he touched the brassy handle, something instinctive, something purely primal in him told him to stop. Telling him that he had done his part and he must now wait.

The wolf had gave its judgment. Pouting slightly as the uncomfortable itch of thinking about something beyond his comprehension took over him, he scratched his head, making a beeline for the TV.

The sounds of his parents making out next room over could be heard.

"Eww..."

-

-

"And so this repeats he dies, I die, she dies, we all die and are reborn in this endless cycle of reincarnation. But one of us will give out some time, one day one of us won't..."

-

-

"...Come back..."

Ren's fingers flexed as he reached out towards the long locks of streaming chocolate.

"I..."

-

-

"...wanted him... I thought... he wanted me... when he first bought me from that... person... that... whore..."

Manta sat transfigured by the swaying blond. The story was now warping, the wheels of time rewinding further backwards than it had ever before.

"And now he has once again..."

-

-

Ren was on his back blankly staring at the stars above, Hao was on him sobbing very uncharacteristically. Ren, Len tried not to push him away. Awash with broken memories, he let time cradle them within her unholy embrace, Hao's hair smelling faintly of plum fanning around them like wings.

"You shouldn't have come back..." said Hao in despair, "you should have never come back to me."

"That's why you let her kill me." said Ren absently, clumsily patting the brunette's back.

"If I can't have you no one can," Hao hissed burying his face in Ren's neck. "she wouldn't have let us stay."

"You could kill her..." Gold eyes flickered as threads of a single picture came back to him one by one, completing the jigsaw puzzle on what happened all those years ago.

"I can't because..."

-

-

"You'll all continue to die and be reborn, until your souls wear out into nothingness. We all possess shamanic abilities, if we wanted to, life could stretch out similar to infinity." the tea had long gone cold by her side, long consumed in Manta's hands. Manta looked down, unwilling to meet her iron gaze.

"But stretching it out like that, it's no wonder Hao does not hold all his memories intact."

Anna gave out a harsh laughter, empty and aggravated from her lungs.

"Yes, but I do, I have all his memories and mine. I hold the hatred, the will, I am one soul that will never die. Haven't you realized Manta, have you not realized what Hao did to bring me to life?"

-

-

"Do you remember?" Said Ren, patting Hao's back awkwardly as the fire shaman continued to take deep breaths of Ren's neck. "Do you remember the last words I said to you?" Hao sealed the next words with a hurried kiss, when they stopped Ren's eyes had grown paler, his hands shaky around Hao's wrist.

Tears had stopped within Hao's eyes as he looked down, replaying the words over and over in his head.

"Yeah I do, but don't say them. Because every time you do... I seem to be losing you." the confession came quickly, even surprising Hao himself as he spoke the words. "I don't want to lose you."

-

-

"I realized then..."

-

-

"This time..."

-

-

"...that I had to have him..."

-

-

"I'll say it..."

-

-

"...By then... I realized revenge was nothing to me..."

-

-

Hao flashed a cocky smile, ruined by the fact that tears still clung on to his cheeks. Ren closed his eyes, they had waited 1000 years worth of pain and time to get this far, now nothing would stop them this time.

-

-

"I love him..."

-

-

"I love you..."

-

-

"My only wish is that he had loved me as more as I wanted him to love me..."

Anna closed her eyes

-

-

Within the shadows two figures stood, one a willowy grace reflecting the forest, the other an undead whose soul refused to die..

Blue eyes filled with tears as she turned towards her own lover as lost souls began to rise from below,

"Be happy otouto..."

* * *

**  
A.C.: **so... I managed to make them all cry, very inconclusive isn't it? But I can safely say that this was more of an ending than the manga . ;; (it ended with them going to bed of all things!) Happy New Years everyone, happy year 2006 

**(Edit):** A.C. is polishing things off...


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